


Knocked Down and Up Again

by eerian_sadow



Series: Nobilius [1]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Alternate Universe, Character Death, Disease, Gen, Homelessness, Lots of time skips, Noble AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-07
Updated: 2018-03-07
Packaged: 2019-03-28 08:38:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13900350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eerian_sadow/pseuds/eerian_sadow
Summary: Their deployer getting so sick was only the beginning of a downward slide for Rumble, Frenzy and Enemy





	Knocked Down and Up Again

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mmouse15](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mmouse15/gifts).



Transistor was sick. It wasn’t sudden and they weren’t sure how it happened. Slowly, though, he began getting worse.

It started with a cough. His doctor said it was just contaminants in his air intake and that he just needed a good scrub. They scheduled the procedure, his air system was cleaned out and Transistor was sent home.

The cough never went away. Then his hands began shaking. His doctor prescribed a specialized fuel, thinking that what they were drinking at home was contaminated even though none of the deployer’s recordicons were showing any symptoms.

Then his memory started to go, and Rumble insisted that Transistor see a different doctor since their primary physician was obviously not helping. The blue recordicon had made the appointment and Frenzy and Enemy helped their weak deployer bathe and fuel before catching a transport to the clinic across town.

Frenzy noticed the first red spot on Transistor’s bright yellow plating as they sat in the waiting room. He told the doctor as much as soon as they were in the office.

Remedy looked at the data pad he was hold and back up at the deployer and his recordicons. “I’ll need to run a few scans to be certain, but even before I begin my exam, the signs are pointing to internal decay that is likely due to some kind of rust infection.”

“How’d that fragger Flatline miss that?” Enemy snarled.

“I do not know,” the medic replied mildly. “But Transistor is in good hands here. Let me get my equipment and we will begin the diagnostic scan.”

“Yeah, okay.” Frenzy took Transistor’s hand in both of his and squeezed. “It’s gonna be okay now.”

“Everything will be fine,” Transistor replied softly. Even that small amount of speaking was enough to send him into a coughing fit, and Enemy didn’t waste any time scrambling up onto the exam table to hold the deployer up.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

“I’m sorry, Transistor. Somehow you’ve contracted Corrodia Gravis.” Remedy frowned and laid his data pad on the exam table. “There is no known cure, though with an appropriate materials donor, we can slow the spread of the disease and extend the time you have left.”

“He’s gonna die?!” Rumble had been silent during the appointment until the diagnosis and his outburst made everyone jump.

“I’m afraid so,” the doctor replied. “Corrodia gravis is one hundred percent fatal. I’m so sorry.”

Transistor coughed, then asked, “How long do you estimate?”

“I don’t…” Remedy cycled his vents and continued. “I do not know for certain, but the corrosion is extensive. Parts of your laser core and spark chamber are already decayed, as well as your cooling system, neural network and processor. Even with a donor, I doubt that you would gain more than a few meta-cycles. Perhaps as many as six, if you were especially resilient.”

“So little time.” Transistor hugged Enemy and Frenzy to his chest and held them tightly. “I think it best if we simply let the disease take its course then. I will not put them through any additional pain.”

“I ain’t lettin’ you give up!” Rumble rushed forward and wrapped his arms around the deployer’s legs. In six meta-cycles some genius in Iacon or on Darkmount could find the cure!”

“Oh, Rumble.” The deployer released Frenzy from his embrace and reached down to lay a comforting hand on the blue recordicon’s head. “I’m sorry, sweetspark.”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

“Okay, so the instructions for his care say no docking, not that we would have, keep him on the triple filtered energon and make sure he stays in bed.” Frenzy stared at the data pad Remedy had sent home with them. “Wipe him down twice a day, unless the outer corrosion gets worse and then we’re supposed to call. If he needs them, he can have the pain suppressants every four joors and the cough suppressant every five.”

“And if they find him a donor?” Rumble pulled a thermal blanket up over Transistor’s recharging form.

“Then we make an appointment with a surgeon, take him in and still follow these instructions.” Frenzy frowned at his twin. “You heard the doc. A donor is just buying him a little more time with us.”

“But it might be enough time to find a cure!”

“I dunno, mech.” Enemy stepped into the room with three cups of coolant and a bowl of silicon wafers. “I don’t think there’s gonna be a miracle. Those are for bots who believe in Primus.”

“Then maybe you better start believing.” Rumble crossed the room slowly and sank down onto the recharge berth they had shared since Transistor had brought them home from the construction facility. “Cause I ain’t giving up.”

“I know that.” Enemy handed him a drink and set the wafers next to him. “I just… Remedy was awful sure.”

“Yeah.” Rumble stared into his cup with a frown.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Two days after their appointment with Remedy, Enemy came online looking at Transistor’s greyed out body. It took several long kliks for him to realize what was wrong, but once he did, he shook Frenzy awake.

“Frenz, call the doc. Tell him… tell him he ain’t gotta look for a donor no more.” Enemy bit his lip as Frenzy sat up and looked over at Transistor. The understanding spreading across the other recordicon’s face was almost painful to watch. “And ask who we need to call about… you know. I’ll tell Rumble.”

Once he was awake, Rumble cried for a full joor.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

“Look, I can’t let three drones stay in an open apartment.” Frenzy stared open-mouthed at their landlord, who was holding out a print out covered in an eviction notice.

“But we just had the service for Transistor yesterday. You can’t even give us a couple of days? What if that had been your sire?”

“I’m not a drone.” The landlord shrugged and shoved the printout into the red mech’s hands. “You’ve got til tomorrow night to be out.”

“We aren’t drones,” Frenzy said softly as the other mech walked away. His hands clenched around the eviction notice as he turned to step back into the apartment that had been their home. “Mechs, I’ve got more bad news.”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Frenzy caught sight of the encampment first. He pointed tiredly toward the cluster of polymer tents and sheet metal hovels. “Over there, mechs.”

“This place is gross,” Enemy grumbled as they picked their way toward the camp. “I can’t believe anyone lives here.”

“Nobody lives here because they want to,” Rumble replied. “So shut up and keep walking. At least down here they’ll help protect us from the enforcers.”

“Maybe,” Enemy argued. “Maybe they’ll help. Or maybe they’ll just think we’re drones like everyone else does.”

“It doesn’t matter what they think,” Frenzy interrupted with a frown. “We just gotta get a roof over our heads. We can’t figure out the rest til we’ve got someplace to recharge.”

“Right. Figure it out.” Enemy sounded defeated, not that the twins blamed him, and he looked down at the ground as they continued forward.

The ground around the homeless camp was strewn with litter, but once they stepped inside the border, the recordicons could see that there were walking paths carefully marked with the refuse. It looked dirty at first glance, but the system looked like it was effective and wouldn’t cost anything to maintain. There were also shallow bins set up in small plazas, filled with cleaning solvent and giving the mechs in the camp the ability to bathe.

“I wonder how they pay for that,” Rumble said, watching almost jealousy as a minibot scrubbed muck off his legs.

“One of the temples brings it down to us,” a strange voice replied. “They bring a medic, too, for those of us who can’t afford treatment at the hospitals.”

The recordicons turned to find the speaker, and locked gazes with a tall white mech who was covered in scratches and dents. The stranger was smiling, though, and was crouching down to look at them as they turned.

“A temple huh?” Enemy crossed his arms. “Like the priests care about anyone but themselves.”

“Some of them do.” The white mech studied them for a few kliks. “You three don’t look like you belong down here among the cast-offs, though. Are you lost?”

“No, our… Our deployer died.” Frenzy bit his lip.

“And our landlord thinks we’re drones,” Rumble added. “Been on the street for five cycles now. We heard this place lets people stay, as long as they work.”

“And we’re good at work,” Enemy finished.

“You have heard correctly, though I do not have the final say in such matters.” The white mech stood back up slowly. “If you truly wish to stay, then I will take you to Hope and you may convince her to allow your petition.”

“Just like that? You don’t even know us.” Enemy was immediately suspicious.

“Not everyone comes here to harm us.” The white mch smiled again. “You yourself said that you are only here because someone else was not intelligent enough to understand that you are more than mere drones.”

“Thanks,” Frenzy said quickly, before one of the others could make their situation any worse. “We really appreciate that. I’m Frenzy, they’re Rumble and Enemy.”

“I am Wisp,” The white mech replied. “Follow me. Hopefully you will have shelter by the end of the night.”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

“Wisp, I told you no more strangers. Not after last time.” The pale yellow femme that Wisp had introduced as Hope crossed her arms and glared at the tall mech. 

“Their deployer has died, Hope.” Wisp frowned. “You remember how hard it was for Synergy when Bandwidth passed on. What if he had needed to endure this life on top of it?”

“That’s not fair, Wisp.” Hope’s glare shifted into an angry frown. “We still don't know anything about these three.”

“They’re willing to work,” the white mech replied. “This won’t be like last time. I will even let them stay in my tent for the next few cycles.”

The femme sighed. “Fine. They can stay, but they’re your responsibility. You find them work and you put them up until they can build their own shelter. Next to yours.”

“Thank you, Hope.” Wisp smiled.

“Yeah, thanks!” Rumble gave the femme a tentative smile. “We won’t let you down.”

“So you say.” Hope frowned again and turned away from them. Rumble thought he saw her pick up a battered data pad. 

“Come on,” Wisp gestured to the door of the tent. “I will show you around and then the three of you may put your belongings in my tent.”

“Thanks,” Frenzy said softly. “But I hope this ain’t gonna cause problems for you.”

“It is nothing that can’t be worked out over time.” The smile stayed firmly in place on the white mech’s face. “Everyone deserves a chance.”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

The homeless camp was quiet most of the time, unless there was a construction project going on. The lack of noise bothered Enemy the most, but they all found it a little disconcerting at first. Over time, though, they adapted and even began to thrive as the other inhabitants discovered that they could run wires and small pipes to move power and energon--and didn’t mind crawling under buildings to do it.

They found their place in the community, and finally mourned Transistor. They still didn’t have an income, but things were finally looking up.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

They could smell smoke in the air as they approached the camp. Frenzy and Rumble exchanged worried glances and Enemy dropped the canvas in his arms and sprinted up the hill that hid their home from casual view. Frenzy dropped the copper he had salvaged on top of it and followed. He heard Rumble drop the cables he was carrying a moment later.

They both froze just behind Enemy when they reached the top of the hill and stared in horror at the burned-out mess that had been their home. Tents still burned in small pockets, but the emergency crews were spraying those down with fire suppressant and a few medical personnel were tending the few survivors they could see.

Not far from the base of the hill facing the camp, there was a row of blanket covered lumps. Frenzy didn’t have to ask to know they were the bodies of their neighbors.

“What the frag happened?” Rumble asked, voice muted with shock.

“The camp is gone,” Enemy replied, just as shocked. 

Frenzy felt tears build up in his optics at the realization that all of their new friends were likely deactivated and covered by those innocent looking sheets.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Once the emergency crews were gone, the recordicons descended into the camp to try and salvage anything they could. They had kept the things that really mattered--a few holos of them with Transistor and the big blanket he had given them when he brought them home--in their subspace compartments, but there were a few other things that would be useful if they had survived the fire. 

The center of camp, where Wisp’s tent had been set up across from Hope’s with theirs next to it, had been burned the worst and there was nothing to salvage except a few scraps of metal that might have been one of Wisp’s beautiful windchimes.

“Let’s get our stuff and go,” Enemy finally said after Frenzy picked up the small metal scraps. “Ain’t nothing left here.”

“Yeah, but where we gonna go?” Rumble asked.

“Back to that one temple with the crystal garden? They didn’t mind when we recharged there.” Frenzy tucked the scraps into his subspace. “Or there’s that bridge not to far from there. We can use that stuff we were supposed to patch H… patch Hope’s tent with to build our own if we use the bridge for two sides.”

“Good idea, Frenz.” Rumble didn’t smile, but he patted his twin on the back. “And I bet that temple still gives energon to mechs who can’t pay, too.”

“And there’s that job placement place we can try again, too.” Enemy didn’t sound any happier, but he approved of the plan. “We’re gonna be okay, right?”

“Yeah,” Frenzy replied. “We got a plan and we’re gonna be okay.”

None of them believed him.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

“We been here what? Two vorn?” Rumble tossed a plastic chip into the trash pile near the door of their tent. “And we’re still recharging under a bridge and begging for scraps.”

“Yeah, but at least no one’s calling us drones around here.” Enemy sipped at the energon cube he had been given at the temple. “And that one priest said he’d pay us to help tidy up the garden.”

“And the temp agency had me doing all that call routing last deca-cycle, remember?” Frenzy sat down with his own small cube of energon. “And I’m first in line for another job like that next deca-cycle.”

“And I’m grateful,” Rumble replied. “But I want an apartment with heat again. And a room where I can close the door.”

“And locks,” Enemy added after a moment. 

“Yeah.” Frenzy sighed despite his earlier optimism. “I want all that too.”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Frenzy was carrying the trash down to the disposal bin by the temple when he heard a string of creative swear words followed by the clatter of something falling down the air shaft in the bridge support. He glanced up toward the source and saw a _big_ grey mech peering over the railing.

“Excuse me,” the grey mech called out, sounding frustrated. “Does that air shaft come out at the street level?”

“Nah,” Frenzy replied. “It ends in a grate in the underground. Hope whatever you dropped wasn’t important.”

“I’m afraid it was.” The large mech cocked his head to the side. “My friend, are you small enough to fit into the air shaft?”

Frenzy knew he was, he’d done some cleaning work in there for the city a few stellar cycles ago, but he didn’t like the way this conversation was going already. “That depends.”

“My friend, I am _happy_ to pay your for your services. But without that pad, I am likely to be joining you under this bridge shortly.”

The red mech frowned and thought for a moment. He really wished either of his brothers was here to watch his back, but they were both on the northern end of the city doing work with a construction company. But they also needed every shanix they could get.

“Let me take this to the disposal bin and think about it.”

“All right, but please be quick. I have a meeting that I cannot miss.”

Frenzy nodded and walked briskly to the side of the temple where they had set up a public use disposal bin. The mech on the bridge was distressed enough to be sincere, but he didn’t know exactly how far he could trust him. Frenzy hadn’t missed the gleam of light hitting expensive polish or the very faint glitter in his paint.

Mechs that rich weren’t always trustworthy.

“Brother Frenzy, is everything all right?” A bright blue priest call Torch stepped away from one of the larger crystals in the garden and approached the fence. He was one of Frenzy’s favorites, always making sure that the recordicons had blankets when it was cold and fresh energon anytime they needed.

“I dunno,” Frenzy replied. “See that big bot on the bridge there?”

Torch nodded. 

“He wants me to do down the air shaft and get some data pad that he dropped. Says he’ll pay me, even. But Rumble and Enemy aren’t here to make sure he’s on the level.”

“Brother Frenzy,” Torch smiled. “I would be happy to accompany you and ensure your safety, if that will help you bring home a few shanix.”

“You would?” The red mech felt immediately embarrassed. It hadn’t even occurred to him that he could ask any of the clergy for help with something so small.

“Certainly. The garden will not suffer for a few joors while I assist you.” The priest moved a few steps to the side and opened a gate in the fence around the garden. “Come, I will keep you safe.” 

“Thanks, Torch.”

They walked quickly back to the bridge and climbed the hill that supported the overpass. The grey mech watched as they stepped onto the walking path, but he didn’t seem overly concerned about the presence of the priest.

“Have you decided to help me, then?”

“Yeah,” Frenzy replied. “Little guys like me gotta be extra careful, though.”

“Of course, I understand.” The grey mech pulled a stack of shanix from his subspace and pulled the top chip off. He held it out until Frenzy took it. “Ten shanix now and ninety more when you come back up.”

Frenzy bit his lip to hold back the sort of smart reply Enemy would have made. He hadn’t brought home a hundred shanix from one job in more than a vorn. “You got a deal!”

A moment later, he was lifting the grate and sliding under it to grab the access ladder in the air shaft.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

“Too bad you’ll never see that mech again.” Enemy chewed happily one of the energon candies Frenzy had treated them all to with his payment for retrieving the rich mech’s data pad. “We’d eat like Iaconian nobles every night if he always pays like that!”

“That’d be the life,” Rumble agreed, sipping his portion of the coolant Frenzy had bought. “Not that I’m complaining, Frenz. You did good today.”

Frenzy popped a candy into his mouth and nodded. Climbing down that air shaft had been worth every bit of effort.

“Excuse me?” Enemy and Rumble froze at the sudden voice outside their door, and Frenzy frowned. That sounded like the rich mech from earlier in the day. “I’m looking for the mech who helped me retrieve my data pad earlier today.”

The red mech exchanged glances with his brothers before crawling to the tent flap and lifting it up. The big mech from the bridge was crouched outside, shining faintly in the street lights. “Did you forget something?”

“Thanks to you, no.” The grey mech smiled. “However, in my rush to make it to my meeting, I did not thank you properly. You quite literally saved my career and those of the mechanisms under me.”

“Well, you paid me, so I guess we’re even. You’re welcome.” Frenzy heard Rumble and Enemy crawl to the door behind him. 

“You misunderstand.” The grey mech shook his head. “I am well aware that mechanisms like yourselves are not meant for manual labor, but you were willing enough to do so today. In that light, I would like to extend an employment opportunity to you.”

Rumble sputtered. “Sure. Pull his other leg.”

“I am quite sincere.” The mech pulled a disposable image pad from his subspace and handed it to Frenzy. The red mech activated it and read the words on the screen slowly. _Terminus, Personnel Resource Manager, Protihex Mining and Refinery_. “I do not know how we could use your specialized skills, but I do know that our orbital mines can use mechanisms of your stature to extract materials from places larger mechs cannot reach. The position includes room and board, if you are interested.”

“What’s in it for you?” Enemy asked, suspicion at the ease of the offer making him confrontational.

Terminus laughed. “A bonus and a productivity boost, I hope. The offer includes all of you. There is always enough work at a mine to go around.”

“Yeah, okay. Say we’re interested. Then what?” Rumble crowded closer, peering at the pad in Frenzy’s hand. 

“Come to my office in the morning to fill out a few forms. Then you pack your belongings and depart on the next shuttle to the correct mining colony.” The grey mech smiled. “What do you think?”

“I’m not a fan of living off planet,” Frenzy said thoughtfully, “But it’s better than what we’ve got now.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, then?”

“Yeah,” Rumble said after a few kliks. “You’ll see us tomorrow.”

“And this better not be a scam,” Enemy added.


End file.
